Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 21, 1990 TAG: 9004210119
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
But football fans love it.
ESPN will televise seven live hours of the draft, starting Sunday at noon. At least 15 commentators will be involved, including Jimmy Roberts from a Scranton, Pa., bar owned by the father of Pitt defensive tackle Mark Spindler.
When ESPN first told the NFL it wanted to televise the draft - seven months after the cable network's September 1979 sign-on - the league was just happy to get the exposure. Realizing it had a valuable commodity, the NFL coaxed a rights fee from ESPN for the first time a year ago.
ESPN pays $250,000 for telecast rights to the draft, a paltry sum compared to the $14 million ESPN will pay for each of its NFL telecast games over the next four seasons. But compared to its regular Sunday fare, the draft produces big numbers for ESPN.
In 1988, the draft moved from a Tuesday morning start to a Sunday noon slot. The Nielsen rating went from a 1.3 to a 3.6 (percentage of TV homes with ESPN). Last year, it improved to 3.8. ESPN's average Sunday afternoon show does a 1.5. The NASCAR Winston Cup average on spring Sundays does about a 2.8.
ESPN spokesman Mike Soltys said the draft begins with a rating of more than 4, as viewers watch the first round. That can become tedious, as each club has 15 minutes to make its first-round choice. Soltys said the rating drops off through the afternoon as other networks compete with sports fare, like an NBA game and golf on CBS, and baseball in local markets, then picks up again in early evening when viewers, presumably, are tuning in for a wrapup.
So, although the suspense at draft headquarters may not be especially gripping, it is preferable to mowing the lawn.
\ FLASHBACK: Without baseball, NBC had to manufacture some series for its spring and summer Saturdays. Today's first installment of the "The Greatest Fights Ever" on NBC Sports Saturday Showcase (4 p.m., WSLS) sounds intriguing.
NBC boxing analyst Ferdie Pacheco returned to Kinshasa, Zaire, for a report and update on the Oct. 30, 1974 "Rumble in the Jungle" between heavyweight champion George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. Pacheco found the 20th of May Stadium overgrown with weeds and brush and a family living in what, in 1974, was the pressbox.
That was the first fight promoted by Don King.
"`King was invented with this fight," said Pacheco, who was Ali's doctor at the time. "That's because two people got together and they thought it was time for black people to share in the promotional loot. This was the first time for a fight with a black champion, black promoter, black nation . . . He also brought over a jazz concert. No one understood. He had James Brown, the Pointer Sisters. Not even a cannibal would look at those girls.
"There's nothing that can compare to seeing the pictures of Zaire at the time."
\ PLAYOFF PLANS: The NBA playoffs begin their 1 1/2-month run Thursday, and the first four days of the 16-team elimination series includes nine telecast games. Cable's TNT will have doubleheaders Thursday and Friday nights and another game Saturday night. CBS sports (WDBJ locally) have doubleheaders next Saturday and Sunday afternoons.
The networks will announce their first-round schedules Monday morning, after pairings are made following Sunday's end to the regular season. Expect to see plenty of the first-round Boston-New York matchup.
In conjunction with the playoffs, CBS will introduce a new half-hour "CBS Sports Basketball" studio show, at 12:30 p.m. Saturday. The show, with hosts Pat O'Brien and Bill Raftery, will include reports on pro and college basketball throughout the playoffs. Also part of CBS playoff coverage will be the annual NBA draft lottery on Sunday, May 20.
\ BASEBALL PROBLEMS: Viewers are becoming disgruntled about early season problems with ESPN's blackout rules on its major-league baseball coverage. Twice in eight days telecasts involving the Baltimore Orioles created problems for area cable systems.
When the Orioles appear on Home Team Sports on their over-the-air network affiliates (including Lynchburg's WJPR) and also on ESPN, the ESPN telecast is supposed to be replaced by a backup cable telecast. ESPN is supposed to notify cable systems by mailgram to switch to the backup games.
On Tuesday night, the Orioles appeared on WJPR and ESPN on some cable systems. ESPN said it sent mailgrams to local systems with the blackout notification. A Cox Cable Roanoke executive said the system didn't receive a mailgram, so it showed Baltimore-Toronto instead of the Yankees-Detroit backup game. Last week, on Opening Day, cable systems in Botetourt County and Blacksburg aired the wrong games, according to the ESPN-Major League Baseball contract.
Because of the continuing problems and conflicting information received from ESPN and Cox Cable Roanoke, this newspaper's "TV Best Bets" listings in the Scoreboard will include the choice of two games when the Orioles are scheduled. On occasions when the Orioles appear on ESPN and another channel at the same time, viewers should call their cable system or ESPN in Bristol, Conn., with their complaints.
\ CBS TO ROANOKE? The chance of CBS Sports televising the 1991 Metro Conference basketball tournament final at the Roanoke Civic Center got a boost because of a 10 percent increase in the Nielsen rating for the split national coverage of last month's title game in Biloxi, Miss.
Last year in the same Saturday afternoon time slot, CBS got a 2.9 rating for a Big East tournament semifinal. This year, showing the Metro final in conjunction with the Big East game, the rating increased to 3.2.
Len DeLuca, director of NCAA sports administration for CBS, said the ratings increase bodes well for the Roanoke tournament, but he added that no decision will be made on the Metro telecast status until at least June.
by CNB